Producing high-quality plastic injection-molded parts faster and more cost-effectively than the competition is critical to manufacturing success in today’s global marketplace.

Mould makers and manufacturing professionals can use SOLIDWORKS Plastics mould filling simulation software to optimize parts for manufacturing, refine tooling to improve quality, and shorten cycle times to reduce manufacturing costs.

Whether you design parts, create moulds, or manage injection molding production, SOLIDWORKS Plastics solutions can help you solve your injection molding challenges without costly and time-consuming prototype iterations, so you can consistently meet your product development and manufacturing goals.

The Need for Improving Injection Molding Performance

In almost all types of product development, from consumer electronics and automobiles to children’s toys and medical devices, the use of components made of plastic materials is steadily increasing.

There are several reasons for this trend, which started decades ago. The main drivers are:

• Cost-Effectiveness: Plastic parts are typically less expensive to manufacture and do not rust or corrode like metals.
• Lightweight: Plastics are lighter than traditional materials.
• Design Flexibility: Plastics can be molded into more complex patterns and shapes with intricate surface details.

In short, plastics are better suited to meet the product development needs of today’s growing number of manufacturers. However, manufacturing plastic parts is more challenging and complicated than designing in metal.

More than 80% of the plastic parts used in today’s products require injection molding, which involves injecting liquified plastic materials into a mold, allowing the material to cool/solidify, and ejecting the molded part.

Successfully producing injection-molded parts free from manufacturing defects requires a complex combination of time, temperature, pressure, material, and variations in tool or part design.

Designers, mold makers, and manufacturing professionals must balance all these variables to produce quality parts.

Key Questions in Injection Molding

• Does the part geometry meet wall thickness and draft requirements?
• How long should the injection/cooling/ejection cycle be?
• What temperature is optimal for material, cooling channels, and mold?
• What pack/fill pressure and best material to use for a specific part?
• Will special inserts, side moves, additional injection gates, or unique coolant channel designs improve part quality or decrease cycle times?

The conventional technique for answering these questions and generating quality components is inefficient, expensive, and disjointed, resulting in slow, expensive design iterations and test cycles that compromise the benefits of using plastics and put manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage.

Injection Molding Challenges Arise Throughout the Process

Professionals involved in the development and production of injection-molded parts and tooling—from the original designer to the mold maker to the manufacturers—face unique challenges.

Everyone has their own perspective, approach, and specific types of problems. Designers care about design aesthetics, mold makers focus on quality, and manufacturers prioritise smooth and efficient production runs.

Despite different perspectives and roles, everyone involved in the injection molding process benefits from access to a plastic simulation environment.

Case Study: ECCO (Click here to read the full article)

As the world’s largest manufacturer of emergency response products, Electronic Controls Company (ECCO) relies on high-quality injection-molded plastic parts fit for outdoor exposure.

ECCO acquired SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional mold injection simulation software to improve the manufacturability of plastic parts.

“Prior to 2012, we relied on our tool manufacturer to spot and address injection-molding issues,” recalls Mechanical Design Engineer John Aldape. “However, when we received glass-filled nylon alarm enclosures with surface-knitting issues, we decided to investigate mold-filling simulation technology. We wanted to independently assess how a mold would fill and where knit lines would be, instead of waiting on iterations with the toolmaker.”

ECCO chose SOLIDWORKS Plastics solutions because it is straightforward to apply and simulates how the plastic will fill the mold, helping the company avoid manufacturability issues.

By implementing SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional software, ECCO has:

• Minimised iterations with its mold maker
• Removed mold-related manufacturing issues
• Optimised parts for mold injection
• Advanced lens optics and product aesthetics

Case Study: Ambix Manufacturing (Click here to read the full article)

Ambix Consulting specialises in precision injection molding and advanced engineering plastics. President, Founder, and Owner Jeffrey D. Nicoll used his extensive experience in plastic failure analysis to build a full-service product development company offering product research and development, industrial design, prototyping and functional testing, failure analysis, tool design, and material selection as well as contract manufacturing by the sister company Ambix Manufacturing.

As demand for Ambix’s expertise in plastics and mold-making increased, Nicoll decided to invest in an injection-molding simulation solution to accelerate complex mold development. “The historical approach to injection molding is to continue creating prototype molds and shooting samples until an acceptable mold is reached,” Nicoll explains. “To avoid this type of project creep and provide the most efficient, cost-effective solutions to our clients, we sought to utilise injection-mold simulation software to resolve manufacturing issues upfront, taking both time and cost out of the mold development process.”

After using SOLIDWORKS Professional design software and SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis software, Nicoll chose SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional simulation software because it is easy to use, offers robust injection molding simulation capabilities, and is fully integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD software.

• Cut mold development time in half
• Achieved a 95% success rate on the first try in the molds
• Increased annual mold production from a few thousand to 10 million parts
• Achieved close correlation between simulations and production

Gain a Competitive Advantage by Optimising Injection Molding

With more and more successful products today incorporating plastic components and the trend toward greater use of plastics continuing, manufacturers can gain a significant competitive advantage by leveraging SOLIDWORKS Plastics simulation technology to shorten injection molding part design while simultaneously improving the quality of injection-molded parts.

Rather than continuing to suffer the delays and costs associated with performing traditional prototype mold iterations and test cycles to meet manufacturing requirements, your company can utilise SOLIDWORKS Plastics simulation software to optimise parts for manufacturability, refine tooling to improve quality, and shorten cycle times to reduce manufacturing costs.

Whether you are a part designer, mold maker, or injection molding manufacturer, SOLIDWORKS Plastics professional injection mold simulation software can help you do your job better and overcome the many challenges you face. By saving time, reducing costs, increasing quality, improving communication, and supporting collaborative workflows, SOLIDWORKS Plastics software enables you to contribute more consistently to the success of your company.

Watch a replay of our SOLIDWORKS Plastics webinar here. To learn more about how SOLIDWORKS Plastics software can improve your injection molding development and production processes, visit MECAD or get in touch with the MECAD team.